Hey everyone,
I've been reading this forum for several months now, but have yet to post. This a great site! I thought it was time to introduce myself. I work as cartographer mapping "real world" features, but am also interested in mapping fictional worlds or taking "real" landscapes and creating fictional places/overlays. I will post some of these examples in the future as I churn them out. If your interested in the "real world' cartography I do, you can view some of it here: http://www.maps.platts.com

Nice to meet you all. EJ

pyrandon

06-06-2007, 09:54 PM

EJ: Wonderful to have you & welcome! (PS: sweet screen name!)

Your professional work is so wonderful--and what an interesting career. I'd like to hear more about the path that lead you there & the day-to-day of your job. Plus, I'm looking forward to seeing your personal work; do you make them for fun or for a purpose?

I look forward to tapping your brain soon :) Once again, welcome.

RPMiller

06-07-2007, 12:22 AM

Welcome aboard EJ! It will be very nice to have someone such as yourself to ask questions. ;)

As Don said, I am also going to be incredibly interested in seeing your work.

flyingmonkey

06-07-2007, 03:35 PM

EJ: Wonderful to have you & welcome! (PS: sweet screen name!)

Your professional work is so wonderful--and what an interesting career. I'd like to hear more about the path that lead you there & the day-to-day of your job. Plus, I'm looking forward to seeing your personal work; do you make them for fun or for a purpose?

I look forward to tapping your brain soon :) Once again, welcome.

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone!

Pyrandon,
To answer your questions. I was one of those people in school that had a miserable time figuring out what I wanted to do. One side of me wanted to be Indianna Jones the other wanted to sit around and draw. So, on my second or third trip back to the University I signed up for an introductory cartography course out of curiosity and have been hooked ever since. Of course I don't get to explore hidden places like Indianna, but it is exploration all the same, as you all know. A year or two later I finished with a degree in Geography. Although, I will say, that many of the best cartographers in the field are self taught....or have a background in another field that uses maps (gaming, ecology, whatever).

On the technical side:
I do all all of my data prep work in ArcGIS 9.2 and all of the actual map creation in Adobe Illustrator CS2, along with the Mapublisher 7.3 plugin which allows you to work with geographic referenced data in Illustrator. I use Photoshop CS2 for any raster effects or raster creation. As soon as Mapublisher updates their plugin to be compatible with CS3, I'll upgrade. I typically work on one map for about four months. During that time I'll do the occasional one or two day custom job that comes through the door. Sometimes I'll do nothing but move around labels for two weeks. Not very exciting, but still important.